Monodelphis (Microdelphys) scalops (Thomas, 1888)

Voss, Robert S., 2022, An Annotated Checklist Of Recent Opossums (Mammalia: Didelphidae), Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2022 (455), pp. 1-77 : 22

Monodelphis (Microdelphys) scalops

(Thomas, 1888)

TYPE MATERIAL AND TYPE LOCALITY: BMNH 51.7.21.23, the lectotype (designated by Thomas, 1888a; see Remarks), consists of the skin and skull of an adult male from an unknown locality in Brazil. Vieira’s (1950) “restriction” of the type locality to Teresópolis (in Rio de Janeiro) was not based on any information about where the lectotype was actually collected and, therefore, is irrelevant. Pavan and Voss (2016) incorrectly listed the type as having been collected at Teresópolis.

SYNONYMS: theresa Thomas, 1921 .

DISTRIBUTION: Monodelphis scalops occurs in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil from Espírito Santo southward and from the contiguous subtropical forests of northeastern Argentina (Misiones). Pine and Handley’s (2008) map approximated the distribution of this species in Brazil but omitted the unique Argentinian locality mentioned in their text; additional collection localities for M. scalops in Argentina were reported by Cirignoli et al. (2011) and Pavan and Voss (2016).

REMARKS: The original description of this species ( Thomas, 1888b) was presumably based on the two specimens subsequently listed by Thomas (1888a), who designated the Brazilian male as type. Monodelphis theresa (recognized as a distinct species by Pine and Handley, 2008) was synonymized with M. scalops by Pavan et al. (2014), whose sequencing results confirmed Gomes’ (1991) hypothesis that these taxa are conspecific (see also Vilela et al., 2015). Abreu and Percequillo (2019) provided a morphological description based on freshly collected material of this ontogenetically variable and sexually dimorphic species.